Reproducing device for coded signs



15, 1956 J. G. c. MINCEL ETAL 3,267,261

REPRODUCING DEVICE FOR CODED SIGNS Filed July 24, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS Jean Gilbert Claude Mincelfi Pierre Jean-Baptiste Aslier BY 7%41 4/ 720a ATTORNEY 5 1966 J. G. c. MINCEL ETAL 3,267,261

REPRODUCING DEVICE FOR CODED SIGNS 5 Sheets-$heet 2 Filed July 24, 1962 INVENTORS Jean GilbertCloude Mincela Pierre Jean-Baptiste Astier ATTORNEY 5 966 J. G. c. MINCEL ETAL 3,

REPRODUCING DEVICE FOR CODED S IGNS Filed July 24, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 v LE1 INVENTORS Jeon Gilbert Claude Mincel&

Pierre Jean-Baptiste Astier ATTORNEYS United States Patent 4 Claims. (in. 235-61.6)

The present invention relates to an improved device for the reproduction of coded signs on tapes, particularly applicable to type-setting machines already provided with a code-reading system.

It is already known to operate type-setting machines of the linotype kind from perforated tapes following a pre-determined code. However, depending on the manner in which the tape has been perforated, or according to the code employed, the following drawback is encountered: when the machine or the apparatus which has served for the perforation of the tape does not correspond to the reproducing device existing on the typesetting machine which is to be controlled by the said perforated tape, or when the simple driving means for the tape on the type-setting machine does not correspond to that which has been previously used for the perforation of the said tape, the latter cannot be utilized on any kind of type-setting machine whatever.

By simple driving means for the tape, there is meant either lateral perforations or central perforations, the said perforations being intended to co-operate with the corresponding toothed wheels provided for driving the tape when the latter is to be run-off for the purpose of automatic control of the type-setting machine.

Furthermore, it is not possible with present-day typesetting machines provided with a system of automatic control by perforated tapes, to operate these machines from data supplied for example by magnetic recording tapes.

The present invention provides a simple device in tended to be placed on any kind of type-setting machine provided with an automatic control device for co-operating with the existing elements known as pick-ups serving to read the said perforated tapes.

In accordance with an essential feature of the invention, the device in question is designed in such manner as to present, in front of the pick-ups of the existing reading device of a type-setting machine, the equivalent of the combination of perforations appearing on a perforated tape without the said tape having to be run-off in front of the reading system of the machine.

More particularly, the information corresponding to a combination of perforations on a perforated tape is transmitted to the device of the present invention, which device permits, in turn, by a system of rods, the pick-ups to work in the same manner as if they had been facing the perforations of the original tape itself.

In a still more detailed manner, the device of the invention comprises a casing in the interior of which are adapted to slide, independently of each other, series of rods or small plates in order to mask or else to free orifices which permit the pick-ups to work.

The movement of the rods is controlled by a signal which is a function of the perforations of the initial tape, so as to actuate the pick-ups corresponding to the combination of the perforations existing on the said tape, without supplying the said tape to the reading device existing on the type-setting machine. The signal is transmitted to electro-magnets which act directly or indirectly on the set of rods of the device according to the invention, so as to obtain a working of the pick-ups which is 3,267,261 Patented August 16, 1966 equivalent to that which would have been normally obtained by the perforations existing initially on the perforated tape.

The device according to the invention is advantageously applicable to the case of type-setting machines which are not specially equipped for carrying into effect the principle of composition of a text by means of two perforated tapes, of which one may be the tape which corresponds to an initial text, while the other may be that which corresponds to corrections which might have been made to the said initial text.

In order to carry a technique of this kind into practice, it is known that it is necessary to modify considerably the present-day reading systems, which are only provided for a single perforated tape. The corrections made to a first text should be again coded, on this kind of machine, on a tape or a portion of tape, and this tape or this portion of tape should replace the portion of the first codification by editing (i.e. cutting and gluing, etc.), the initial tape.

Now, the device according to the invention makes it possible, from an appropriate complementary apparatus, to present to the pick-ups and to the reading device existing on any type-setting machine, the exact codification of the signs to be reproduced in their final form.

The device according to the invention is also applicable to the control of type-setting machines, provided with their present reading means, from magnetic tapes or even from perforated cards.

Other advantages and features of the present invention will be brought out more clearly from the description which follows below, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view in section of the device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a corresponding plan view of the device;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the device;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of the device for syncronizing the advance of the tape, this synchronization being necessary for the satisfactory working of the typesetting machine; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective explanatory view of the application of the invention to the operation of a type-setting machine by means of two perforated tapes.

Referring to the drawings, there will be described below an advantageous form of embodiment of the device according to the invention. This device is constituted by a casing 1 capable of being easily mounted on a typesetting machine which already comprises a reading device for a perforated tape intended for its automatic control. This casing 1 can be pivotally mounted on the machine, for example by means of a system of the hinge type indicated as a whole by the reference 2 in FIGS. 2 and 3. A system for locking this casing in position can be arranged in any appropriate manner such as that shown for example in FIG. 3 and which is of the latch type 3.

In the interior of the casing 1 is provided a series of rods such as 4. The number of these rods is obviously dependent on the code to be read and/or of the code which has been used in perforating the tape from which it is desired to control the type-setting machine. In the example considered here, there have been shown in FIG. 2 six of these rods 4 (which corresponds to a code of up to six holes). These rods are capable of being given a movement of translation in the directions of the arrows f1 and f2. They are guided in their movement by combs 5 and 6. Each of the rods can be displaced in opposition to a spring 7, of which one of the extremities is connected for example to the comb 5 while the other is coupled to the extremity of the corresponding rod. Each rod is terminated by a piece such as 8, comprising a hollowedout portion 9 intended to co-operate with the corresponding pick-up 10 already existing on the type-setting machine which it is desired to control. The toothed wheel 11 which has been shown in FIG. 1, is that which also exists on the said type-setting machine, this wheel serving to drive a perforated tape when the device according to the invention is not in use and when the said type-setting machine is utilized in the normal manner for which these reading and control devices have been designed.

The movement of translation of each of the rods 4 in the direction f1 in order to permit the recess 9 to be brought above the corresponding pick-up, 10 is effected by electro-mechanical means, namely by means of a crank-pin 12 which engages in a natch 12a of the rod. This crank-pin pivots about a small spindle 1 3 in the direction of the arrow f3 when its shoulder 14 is pushed downwards by the plunger 15 of an electro-magnet 16. An electro-magnet such as 16 can be provided for each rod 4, each electro-magnet acting on a mechanical unit such as that which has just been described.

The plunger 15 of each electr c-magnet is naturally attracted downwards when the said electro-magnet is energised. The return of each rod 4 to its intial position in the direction of the arrow f2 is ensured by the action of spring 7 when the energisation of the electro-m agnet 16 has ceased. A stop 17, the position of which can be adjusted by any appropriate means, limits the travel of each rod 4 in the direction of the arrow 1, and a stop 18 limits the travel in the direction of the arrow f2.

It will readily be understood that use can normally be made of the reading and control device already existing on a type-setting machine and operated directly from a perforated tape, without being compelled to remove the device of the invention if this has previously been installed on the said machine. In fact, it is only necessary to employ any appropriate means acting continuously in the direction of the arrow f1 (for example at 19), in order to bring each rod 4 into abutment against 17 so that each pick-up 10 is free to move upwards, and to supply the reading device of the machine through the intermediary of the wheel 11 which has been referred to above, the perforated tape being 'held in position by the member 18. By reason of. the fact that the casing 1 is pivotally mounted to move in the direction of F, access to the pickups 10 coupled to the driving device 11, and also the placing in position of the perforated tape, accordingly offer no difficulty.

There will now be given an example of the application of the device according to the invention and its operation in the case of composition of a text by means of two perforated tapes 20 and 21 (FIG. 5), one of them being the so-called correction tape.

The applicants do not propose to describe here the exact method of transmission of the signals in the case of the application of these two tapes. It will only be necessary to recall that this device is based on the following principle:

Each line of text to be composed is referenced by a number both on the intial tape and on the correction tape, this number being naturally represented by a special combination of perforations;

A so-called follow-up group 22 is provided with two reading heads 23 and 24 connected to each other through the intermediary of a comparison circuit; the original tape (21 for example) passes under the first head 23 and the correction tape 20 under the second reading head 24; the first reading assembly is put into operation first; it records the code of the signs in a normal manner and in addition, the identification number of the line. As soon as this identification number corresponds to that of the correction tape of the second reading head, the comparison circuit emits a signal which shuts off the first head and puts the second into circuit; at the following line, the first head starts working again normally, provided however that there is no other signal at the comparison circuit.

When the principle as above described is applied to the present invention, each of the heads 23 and 24 when put into circuit emits a signal which corresponds to the combination of the perforations which it reads, and this signal is taken up for each perforation by the corresponding electric line or lines 25, which are six in number. There are thus energised one or more of the electro-rnagnets 16 of the device of the invention. Each electro-magnet energised will operate so that the corresponding rods present their recess 9 in front of the pick-ups 10, which thus work as if they were associated with perforations read on the strips 20 or 21.

For the purpose of synchronization between the unwinding speeds of the tapes 20 or 21 and the reading device comprising the pick-ups 10 of the type-setting machine, there is provided an electro-mechanical unit illustrated by way of example in FIG. 4. This is essentially constituted by a crank 26 rigidly coupled for upward and downward movements to the pick-ups 10, this crank being rotatably mounted, for example at 27, and actuating by its extremity 28 a ratchet device 29 engaged with a ratchet wheel 30 under the action of the small spiral spring 31. During the movement of retraction of the pick-ups 10 (after reading a combination of perforations) the crank 26 which had pivoted in the direction of the arrow F1 during the reading operation, pivots in the direction of the arrow F2 so as to act by the intermediary of a roller 32 on an electric contactor device 33, the function of which is to act through the intermediary of an independent circuit 25a on the driving and advancing device of the tapes 20 and 21. The ratchet wheel 30 rotates through a fraction of a revolution and this rotation is of course utilized at the present time, in association with the toothed wheel 11, for the advance of a perforated tape when the latter is employed directly to control a type-setting machine without utilizing the device according to the invention.

It will of course be understood that the present invention has been described only by way of explanation and not in any limitative sense, and that all useful modifications may be made to the device of the invention without thereby departing from its scope.

We claim:

1. An improved control device for a type-setting machine of the type machine in which keys of the keyboard are controlled by indications supplied by a tape having coded perforations and unwinding under a reading head comprising pick-ups operatively connected to the keys of the keyboard with the number of said pick-ups being dependent on the perforation code and the actuation of said pick-ups resulting in the actuation of a key of the keyboard determined by the perforation code combination actuating said pick-ups,

a reading means to read the coded perforations of the tape, means for directing and adapting the indications of the code received from said reading means in accordance with the number of said pick-ups,

electro-mechanical means for receiving the indications from said means for directing and adapting the indications of the code associated with each of said pickups in a manner to functionally actuate said pick-ups,

whereby there is reproduced electro-mechanically on said pick-ups the equivalent of the combination of perforations on the tape without the passage of the tape in contact with said pick-ups.

2. The improved control device for a type-setting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reading means is an electro-magnetic reading means, said means for directing and adapting the indications of the rods is an electric circuit of which the input is connected to said reading means while the output is connected by as many lines as there are pick-ups to said electromechanical means which comprises, for each line, an electro-magnet and, for each electro-magnet, a rod associated with one of said pick-ups, whereby, for each energisation of each of said electro-magnets, the associated rod is actuated in order to operate functionally the pick-up with which it is associated.

3. The improvement as claimed in claim 2, in which the mechanical part of said electro-mechanical means including the rods associated with said pick-ups comprises, on each rod, an orifice adapted to co-operate with the pick-up associated with said rod, whereby each pick-up is functionally actuated whenit is aligned with an orifice.

4. The improvement as claimed in claim 3, in which said electro-mechanical means is constituted by a casing adapted to be removably mounted on said type-setting machine, said rods disposed in the interior of said casing, the number of said rods being equal to the number of said pick-ups, said rods being adapted to effect a reciprocating movement, guiding combs for said rods, return springs for said rods, a member on the extremity of each rod directed towards said pick-ups, and having an orifice therein, a pin mounted so as to push against each said rod with said electro-magnet for each said pin mounted so as to act on said pin, whereby each electro-magnet energised by a current supplied from said means for reading the combination of the perforated tape acts on the pin which corresponds thereto, said pin pushes against the rod which corresponds to it, the displacement of said rod causing an orifice to be presented in alignment with the corresponding pick-up.

No references cited.

MAYNARD R. WILBUR, Primary Examiner.

R. E. COUNCIL, D. W. COOK, Assistant Examiners, 

1. AN IMPROVED CONTROL DEVICE FOR A TYPE-SETTING MACHINE OF THE TYPE MACHINE IN WHICH KEYS OF THE KEYBOARD ARE CONTROLLED BY INDICATIONS SUPPLIED BY A TAPE HAVING CODED PERFORATIONS AND UNWINDING UNDER A READING HEAD COMPRISING PICK-UPS OPERTIVELY CONNECTED TO THE KEYS OF THE KEYBOARD WITH THE NUMBER OF SAID PICK-UPS BEING DEPENDENT ON THE PERFORATION CODE AND THE ACTUATION OF SAID PICK-UPS RESULTING IN THE ACTION OF A KEY OF THE KEYBOARD DETERMINED BY THE PERFORATION CODE COMBINATION ACTUATING SAID PICK-UPS, A READING MEANS TO READ THE CODED PERFORATIONS OF THE TAPE, MEANS FOR DIRECTING AND ADAPTING THE INDICATIONS OF THE CODE RECEIVED FROM SAID READING MEANS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NUMBER OF SAID PICK-UPS, 